Gigabyte XM300 Xtreme Gaming Mouse Review

You’ve probably heard Gigabyte’s name in conversations about desktop graphics cards, motherboards, and gaming notebooks. However, the company also produces computer peripherals of all sorts, mostly of a gaming bent, including keyboards, mice, and headsets. The mouse we’re reviewing here is the new XM300 Xtreme Gaming Mouse, the first model in Gigabyte's Xtreme Gaming lineup. At a $39.99 list price, this seven-button clicker has a comfortable design, plus a sprinkling of features you’d typically see only north of this price point. For example, its 6,400dpi optical sensor is more sensitive than the 3,500dpi offered on competing mice such as the venerable Razer Abyssus, and its Omron switches—something of a gold standard in mouse-button mechanisms—are rated to last 20 million clicks. It also allows on-the-fly switching between four different DPI levels, with separate X and Y axis adjustments.

The biggest challenge for the XM300 is that the $40 price point is a hotly contested one. In our online searching, we found no fewer than a dozen different models, and that was only looking at the popular makes: Razer, Logitech, Thermaltake (under its Tt eSports sub-brand), and SteelSeries. In a sea awash with this kind of competition, the challenge to be different from everyone else is quite difficult. Let’s see if the XM300 can break out.

Design & Features

At its most basic level, the Gigabyte XM300 is slightly larger than an average desktop mouse with a USB wired connection. As expected from a gaming-oriented peripheral, it has an aggressive and imposing look. The design reminded us a little of the popular Razer DeathAdder, at first look. It’s practically the same height, at 1.73 inches, though a bit narrower (2.4 inches), with a 5.1-inch-long body. Its shape is suitable for medium-size right hands. Unfortunately, the XM300 isn’t offered in a left-handed version at this time.

The XM300’s all-plastic body feels hollow, although not fragile. On the contrary, it’s strong, making no creaks or other sounds even when we squeezed the rigid parts hard. Its 3.5-ounce weight may feel overly light if you’re used to having some heft in your mouse hand. However, there’s nothing you can do about that, as this mouse lacks an adjustable weight system. That may be a con for some buyers, but it's not necessarily a competitive disadvantage. You’ll generally need to spend $50 or more to get an adjustable-weight gaming mouse. Still, we couldn’t shake the feeling that the XM300 would have benefited from feeling slightly heftier.

The arch on the XM300’s body puts your hand in a commanding position. Your index and middle fingers will feel like they’re far off the desk surface relative to a traditional mouse. We found it comfortable to hold this mouse with a traditional palm grip, with our fingers fully resting on the right- and left-click buttons, and also using a claw grip in which only our fingertips touched the two buttons. When your hand is placed on the mouse, the arch shape puts the knuckle of your index finger at the highest point, with your middle finger rolling off to the right side.

The left- and right-click buttons are noticeably sculpted. The right edge of the right-click button has a prominent lip on the outer side. One part of the design we especially liked was the rubberized inserts on either side, which have a tread-like pattern. Your thumb and ring finger won’t have an issue finding secure purchase on these. This is a good thing, considering there’s no ledge on either side for resting your fingers. The rest of the XM300’s surfaces are plain plastic, without any sort of rubberized or grip-aiding texture.

As we mentioned earlier, the XM300 uses Japanese Omron switches for the left- and right-click buttons, which Gigabyte says are good for 20 million clicks. (We’re still testing that claim; should get back to you in a decade or so.) They make a predictable click sound, like most mice. The buttons have plenty of up-and-down travel for tactile feedback. They would benefit from a more anchored feel, however, as there’s a bit of play before the actual switch is activated when pressing the button.

The mouse has two buttons on the left side, perfectly placed for easy reach. The front button rises about three millimeters off the surface, and the rear button about two millimeters. In addition, the separation between them is deep and easily felt. It was always obvious to us which button was which by feel alone. The pad of your thumb covers the back button, while the more sensitive front part of your thumb goes up to the apex of the first button. Both buttons have excellent tactile feedback. They have no play prior to clicking, unlike the two main buttons.

The only problem with the side buttons is that there are just two of them. This limits the XM300’s appeal, most notably for real-time strategy (RTS) games. The inclusion of only two side buttons is one of our main complaints about this mouse.

The DPI-increment control buttons are just behind the scroll wheel. Their placement ensures they won’t be accidentally pressed while using the XM300. Like the side buttons, there’s an unmistakable tactile gap between them. We didn’t need to look down to figure out which one we were pressing. Using either a palm or a claw grip, we found we could pull back our index finger and hit either button by feel, without removing the rest of our hand from the mouse. Using Gigabyte’s software, you can configure and store four DPI settings. The DPI level you’re on is indicated by the white LED bar on the front left side. These lights aren’t hidden by your thumb.

Speaking of lights, Gigabyte’s logo on the back of the mouse can be set to any one of the 16.8 million colors in the RGB spectrum. The logo is bright enough not to seem dim on its highest setting, though it fell well short of searing our eyes. The light can be set to a constant brightness, to cycle between colors, or to breathe. Aside from the DPI-indicator LEDs, no other part of the mouse lights up. While this is not necessarily a bad thing. we wouldn’t have minded an illuminated area around the scroll wheel.

The rubberized scroll wheel has a notchy, tactile feedback, unlike the smooth scrolling wheel you’d typically find on Microsoft-branded mice. It’s easy to tell whether you’ve gone one or two notches, and we noted no play or hesitation in the excellent center-click action.

Gigabyte designed three thin Teflon pads into the bottom of the mouse. One sits at the very front, spanning the entire width, and the other two are spaced along the very rear edge. They’re slick to the touch, and lightning-fast on low-resistance mouse pads. Gigabyte includes two spare sets.

We experienced no accuracy or skipping issues while gaming or editing photos with the XM300. However, we noticed the XM300 is a chore to use on softer surfaces like a tablecloth or any kind of fabric, as the non-Teflon bottom surfaces have a high-friction, sandpaper-like texture. This causes too much drag, unlike a mouse like the SteelSeries Sensei.

One place where the XM300’s budget nature shows most strongly is in its plain-plastic USB cable. We’d prefer to see a thicker braided cable to give it more durability. Moreover, the cable isn’t removable, though that’s hardly expected at this price point.

On the plus side, a plastic cable is more pliable than a braided one, and it’s also plenty long at 75 inches. The gold-plated USB connector adds a bit of eye candy, if no functional advantage.

Software

It appears that Gigabyte assumes you’ll have the initiative to look for the XM300's software on your own, as there’s no mention on the box or anywhere else that software is available. Gigabyte’s software isn’t required to use the mouse, though you’ll need it if you want to assign macros, customize profiles, and of course, change the lighting pattern. It’s a 12.7MB download from the Gigabyte support site, which is fortunately easy to find. The software is relatively simple to use, which is a good thing, too, as there’s no help feature or manual available for this mouse, both of which we would have appreciated.

The software’s main screen is split into three parts. The first part allows you to assign keys and control the lighting.

The lighting can be set in any RGB combination you desire. It’s not immediately obvious, but you can turn off the lighting by setting the three RGB sliders to 0. You get three lighting patterns to choose from, but no way to set the lights to go to sleep after a certain period of inactivity.

For key mapping, click the button you want to change, and then select the key you want to assign. After clicking Save, your settings are saved directly in the mouse’s onboard memory, meaning your settings won’t be lost if you plug the XM300 into another computer. However, only five profiles can be stored. (Slightly more expensive mice like the SteelSeries Rival Optical offer unlimited profile storage.)

Macro assignment is the second section of the software. After clicking one of the 50 save slots, you’ll be presented with a number of controls that allow you to set up as simple or as complicated a macro as you wish. The user interface is clunky at best, and it’s unclear where to start. After some trial and error, we clicked the Record button to start recording a macro, and pressed the Pause key on our keyboard when finished.

You can choose to have the macro record your keyboard, your mouse, or both. Furthermore, you can record the time delay between actions, put in a fixed interval, or set no time delay. Last, you can set the macro to execute once, loop, or fire. As with the button assignments, the macros you create are stored directly in the XM300’s onboard memory.

The last section of the interface is Other Settings...

For optical-sensor sensitivity, the X and Y axis setting can be designated separately for each of the four DPI presets in increments as small as 50dpi. The axis splitting is a feature we always look for when it comes to custom sensitivity. As noted earlier, the XM300 supports up to 6,400dpi, well above average for a mouse at this price point.

The scroll-wheel settings are simple, allowing you to set the number of lines scrolled per notch of the wheel. The software offers no settings for double-click speed or acceleration, though. These can be controlled via Windows' own settings, of course, but they won’t be stored on the mouse.

Also from here, the polling rate can be set from 125Hz to 1,000Hz. The available settings are 125Hz, 142Hz, 166Hz, 200Hz, 250Hz, 333Hz, 500Hz, and 1,000Hz.

Finally, this section of the software allows you to check for updates to the Gigabyte Xtreme software and for any firmware updates for the mouse. We tested both of these, though we had the latest software, and it reported that the mouse was running the newest firmware. It's also possible to download the software and firmware updates directly off Gigabyte’s support site.

Conclusion

The Gigabyte XM300 provides a tidy combination of performance and features at the $40 price point. Its comfortable shape is friendly to several grip variations, including palm and claw. The sculpted right- and left-click buttons have a good feel, backed by Omron switches. The scroll wheel is precise, and it has an excellent center-click action. The DPI adjustment and side buttons also have fine tactile feedback. We experienced no performance or accuracy issues in our testing. On a solid surface, its Teflon feet are as slick as any. However, when using the XM300 on a non-solid surface like a tablecloth, its rough underside caused extra drag.

Our main quibbles about this mouse are its right-hand-only design, and the fact that it’s limited to just seven buttons (with only two side/thumb buttons). The latter is a definitive turn-off for RTS and MMORPG players, as is the XM300’s limited onboard storage for just five profiles. At least the Gigabyte software provides for separate X- and Y-axis settings for a generous four DPI levels. Up to 50 macros can be stored, though the software interface could use some work. Some rather basic functionality is missing, as well, such as the ability to set a sleep interval for the lighting. Moreover, the lack of a manual and software help is disappointing.

We did like that the XM300’s lighting supports 16.8 million colors. It can be set in a constant color, to breathe, or to cycle continuously between colors. Just the Gigabyte logo is illuminated, however.

Nevertheless, the Gigabyte XM300’s combination of features, comfort, and performance make it a reasonable contender at this price point. But before you drop $40, consider that another $10 to $15 can get you a mouse like the Mionix Avior 7000, which addresses most of our complaints about the XM300.